WASHINGTON — US officials are challenging Iran’s claims that it has reverse-engineered the American drone that went down last year inside its borders, though one source raised concern that the country could try to offer access to China and Russia.

The drone’s coating, which resists detection by radar, is a high priority for the Chinese, who also sought access to a stealth US helicopter tail that crashed in Pakistan during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

A former intelligence official told FOX News it is unlikely the Iranians could figure out how to recreate the drone, and that the pressing concern would be that they would try to use the technology to bargain with the Chinese or the Russians.

While China does not necessarily have the technology to help significantly advance Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for access to drone parts, China could offer Iran an IOU of sorts — for a favor like a veto at the UN Security Council, the former official said.

The Russians would also be interested in any US intelligence collection capability and could offer Iran ballistics technology that would be useful for a nuclear delivery system.

Still, the former official described any information the Iranians have been able to glean about the drone’s reconnaissance history as “low-hanging fruit,” since it would be contained in the drone’s equivalent of a black box.

“I think there is a history here of Iranian bluster, particularly now when they are on the defensive because of our economic sanctions against them,” Lieberman said. “I don’t have confidence at this point that they are really able to make a copy of it. It’s a very sophisticated piece of machinery.”

As for Iranian claims they have broken the codes or encryption, a source said that statement was a stretch because the encryption “keys” are changed on a monthly basis, and sometimes even more frequently than that.

“The Iranians are pulling data down, intercepting data all the time, but they can’t decode it,” the former intelligence official said.

A 10-week investigation by the CIA had failed to recreate the error that brought the drone down last year. Contact was lost with the drone and its operators on Nov. 29.